Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-08-20

General of California returned to the Treas
ury of the United States the entire amount
of the appropriation which had been made
by Congress for the completion of the sur
yeys of land In this State, notifying the
Commissioner of the General Land Office
at the same time that no responsible sur
veyor would enter into a contract for the
completion of the surveys; that the rate of
compensation offered by the honorable
Commissioner OF the General Land Office
was entirely too low. In the Territory of
Utah the efforts of the Commissioner to
secure the completion of the surveys
have been attended with a larger
share OF success but there still re-
mains in that Territory within
the limits of your grant a very
large area of unsurveyed land, while of the
lands surveyed in that Territory within the
limits OF the grant. more than half of the
surveys have been completed since the
year 1880. According to the statements
furnished by the honorable Commission
appointed to investigate the affairs of your
road under this head, there was granted an
aggregate of 100000 of acres of land to
your road. very small proportion of this
area was surveyed prior to 1860. Between
the years 1870 and 1880 surveys were prose-
cuted very tardily. From 1880 to 1883 an
increased activity in the surveys was ob-
servable, but even at the present date about
one-half of the lands granted are still I'M
surveyed, but owing to the policy inaugu
rated and persisted in by the present hon.
orable Commissioner of the General Land
Office, surveying for the past two years has
been almost wholly suspended.
DIscoURAGING AND UNREASONABLE REQUIRE
MENTs.
In addition to all the discouragements
herein set forth, within the past three
months, and in the exercise of his discre-
ton the honorable Commissioner of the
General Land Office has departed from all
the precedents established by his prede-
cessor in Office, and has attached to the
requirements for disappearing the mineral
character OF land, onerous and, to my mind,
unreasonable rules of practice. These new
rules are made applicable to the lists of
selections which have been before the de-
partment for more than two years. Among
these rules may be mentioned that of re-
quiring non-mineral affidavits as to land
returned and denominated by the United
States surveyors as agricultural. Hereto
fore such return by the surveyors was ac-
cepted as prima facie evidence of the agri-
cultural character of the land. Under the
existing regulations of the Land Depart
ment, which regulations have been an
nounced only within the past three months,
and made to relate to lists of selections
which have been before the department for
more than two years, it is now required
that an affidavit shall be made as
relates to each forty acres of
land embraced within such list Of
selections by an individual who has fire.
quently passed over" each subdivision of
forty acres, and is therefore competent TO
e.
found upon the forty acre tract subject of
the affidavit; that the affidavit shall be
made separately and specifically as relates
to each particular forty acres, and that
single affidavit embracing a number of
these small Governmental subdivisions will
not be competent; and that the individual
who makes the affidavit shall be specifically
authorized in each particular case to make
such affidavit. This requirement is made
to relate to large areas of grazing lands in
the States of Nevada and the Territory of
Utah, VIGOROUSLY free from all mineral in
dlcations. 1t is well known to YOU that
large areas of lands fit only for grazing pur-
poses, in the State of Nevada and the Terri
tory of Utah are located in very sparsely
settled regions, and that it will be most
difficult, if not wholly impossible, to find
individuals who have frequently passed
over each particular and separate forty-acre
tract embraced within the limit of your
grant. and who therefore possess the neces-
sary knowledge to qualify them to make
the required affidavits in this behalf.
OBSTRUCTIVE MEASURES.
As to land interdicted as mineral by the
field notes of the United States surveyors,
new, onerous, and, to my mind, unreason-
able, requirements are made in the recently
adopted rules of practice. Under the rules
OF practice obtaining in 1865 and up to the
lst of March, 1887, dispreof as to the min
eral character of land interdicted as mineral
could be initiated upon lands unsolicited.
This was obviously reasonable rule. The
lists of selections must first be submitted TO
the Registers and Receivers of the local Land
Offices of the district wherein the lands are
located. Upon lists so presented, Registers
and Receivers must first hear and deter
mine upon all questions relating to the
mineral character of the land before they
can certify that it is agricultural in charac-
ter and therefore clear to the company, and
subject to the terms of the grant. The
practice has uniformly been to initiate pro-
ceedings prior to selections to disprove the
mineral character of the land, which proof
has been submitted under the rules estab-
lished by the Interior Department itself for
Registers and Receivers, and under the d.
rectioE of these officers with respect of ad-
vertising the hearings of such testimony in
disproof. Upon the testimony SO pre-
sented, Registers and Receivers have deter
mined the mineral or agricultural charac-
ter OF the land in question. The agricult-
ural character of the land being estab-
lished, it becomes subject to selection by
the company and land so selected could be
certified as clear to the company by the
Registers and Receivers of the district Land
Offices to the Commissioners of the General
Land Office. In pursuance of this rule of
practice which was established by the In
terror Department, and which had been
maintained by all the Secretaries of the In
terror until within a past few months.
disproof as to the mineral character of
the land was taken as relates to large
area of acreage. The proceeding is in the
very nature of things costly, and after this
cost had been borne by the company, ETC.,
so much of the land as had been decided
by the. Registers and Receivers of the Dis
trict Land Offices to be agricultural had
been selected. the Commissioner of the
General Land Office dismissed all the pro-
ceedings with reference to the non-mineral
character of the land, not because of any
allegation OF irregularity of proceedings,
under the rules of practice which have OBJ
tanned for the last twenty years, but upon
the technical plea that the grant to the
COHlpdlly uOeS HOI OI DSelI establish Such
right in the company with respect of lands
selected as would entitle il to inaugurate
proceedings in disproof, but that its rights
to the land must first be inaugurated by
selection, and that disproof as to mineral
must follow and not precede such selection.
The order of the honorable Commissioner
does not raise any question as to the ade-
quacy of the proofs submitted. 1t simply
declares that the proof however adequate,
was taken prior to the selection, and forces
upon the company the expensive duty of
reopening the proceedings in disproof,
which are objected to not because of made
quacy, but solely on account of having
been taken prior to selection By this
ruling lists of seleSipns long since CON-
pleted, are relegated TO condition of very
indefinite delay as to the issue of patents.
The extent to which the requirement re-
lating to affidavits of non mineral indica-
ton on each forty acre tract of agricultural
land within the limit of your grant will
delay the future operations of the company
in obtaining record title to its lands, will
readily be perceived. 1t should be remem-
bered that at the date of the passage of the
Act, the Territory to be intersected by
the line of road between the Mis-
souri, river and tide-water at the
city of Sacramento was, with the exception
of small portion at the western terminus